“We grudgingly agree but don’t actually commit.”

This great line came from someone in a recent workshop, as we explored the leadership team’s frustration at feeling overwhelmed and struggling to prioritise their work.

I’ve written previously about the problem of prioritisation. In a challenging market, even with an agreed strategy, some teams spread their bets, trying everything, hoping something will take root. Maybe a visit from a senior stakeholder ends up with lots of new, well-meaning ‘ideas’ that, of course, will become orders and extra work for someone.

By far the biggest issue I see with prioritisation is teams that ‘grudgingly agree’ and think that’s the end of the conversation. They skip the most important conversation: the Commitment Conversation. They assume that silence around the table is commitment. It is not. The reservations always come out afterwards. As the saying goes: “Meeting silence, corridor violence.”

Skipping this (sometimes difficult) conversation causes extra work for everyone, usually the people who weren’t in the room. These members of the extended leadership team have already been told they are empowered and need to step up, and are probably getting a bit sick of hearing that, tbh. What they actually want is for their leadership team to get into the habit of having a Commitment Conversation when they are making decisions.

I have created the slide below so you can easily add it to your agendas.